Tabella

[Lamia]

The voting tablet. Herbs and flowers that represent democracy, justice, leadership, and power: olive blossom, frankincense, tobacco flower, benzoin, Little John, bergamot, galangal, angelica, fig, sage, and ginger.

I can't figure this out. Wet, it's got a green-ness to it, a fleshy leafed green, rather than a cheerful spring green or a newly-mowed green.

Drydown it thickens. I presume that to be a combination of the fig and tobacco. But there's something myrrh-ish as well, plus the round scent of bergamot.

Can't figure this one out, but I like it very very much.

[yeahbutnobut]

Tabella

 

In the bottle: fig and resins! Mmm!

Wet on skin: lots of fig, and it’s quite a sharp fig…I also smell ginger, herbs and resins.

Dry on skin: oh, this is gorgeous. It smells like beautiful resins and warm herbs surrounding a heart of fig. the fig is a bit sharp, but very pleasant. I can smell the golden and wonderful resin notes, bright frankincense and sweet benzoin. I smell sharp notes of ginger and bergamot, a bit of sage, a hint of smoky tobacco flower, and soft olive blossom with it’s slightly fruity-oily-floral scent. everything works together really well.

After a while: this gets better! The fig then goes all mushy (but still has a hint of something sharp about it) and even a little musky, reminds me of the musky fig in Aeronwen. Only this time it’s got herbs and lovely resins. These seem to add a golden, glimmering scent to the fig. I smell more of the olive blossom too, I love that note, and it seems to enhance the soft, almost creamy scent of the fig.

The drydown of this scent is a delightful scent of soft musky-powdery fig backed up with olive blossom. It’s really beautiful. The frankincense adds the perfect touch of incense to it all, I think some of the smokiness also comes from the tobacco flower.

Verdict: as this has aged it has become a gorgeous sophisticated bergamot perfume with undertones of resin and fig. the ginger, olive blossom, fig and bergamot make this snappy and fresh, quite sharp (I myself would rather it was a tiny bit sweeter) but with a feel to it that’s very mature and classy, refined. Something about it also reminds me of the Roman-themed scents like Angeronalia and Ides of March. And underneath it are the resins. The frankincense is really lovely here, and the tobacco adds smokiness and makes it a little more incense-y but not overwhelmingly smoky like tobacco can usually be. The drydown is a lovely fig gilded with bright olive blossom and frankincense. Really lovely. It would be even nicer though if the fig were sweeter and maybe of the mushy brown-red-purple variety (not the green type I get here) but this is certainly a keeper.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? yup, the bottle.

If you like this, try: Sagittarius, Aeronwen, Intrigue, Luperci, Banded Sea Snake, Ides of March

[Muppetk]

in bottle: fresh cut grass! slightly sharp green.

 

wet: GREEN! Not sharp, round, and a very familiar green... it's actually reminding me a bit of Tarot: Strength when fresh. Or maybe it's Ides of March. I certainly see where the other reviewer gets the comparison.

 

drying: ooh, the resins start to come out! I luff this. If it stays this nice, it becomes roller-bottle worthy!

 

dry: where'd it go? It's incredibly light, almost none of the basenotes are present... *scratches head* No wait, it's back. Ooo... and it's gone again. *looks at wrist funny*

 

It seems to be gorgeous, but fleeting. Which doesn't jive with the listed notes. I wonder if the oil separated... I think I need to swirl it & try again with a larger amount.

 

Second try, more oil: okay, the round resin-fig undertone comes out more strongly though its blended so well that I'm hard pressed to pick out the fig. Sadly, no tobacco on me. Still very pretty. I think I like this better than Ides. It's rounder. It's also fairly gender neutral & I could see this working well on a light hearted guy as well. *snicker* Not my SO the scorpio though.

[filigree_shadow]

This started out very perfumey (from the frankincense, I bet) and then turned slightly less perfumey. It's herby without smelling like any particularly herb -- it just has that sort of harsh, kind of bitter scent I associate with herby scents. I guess that's from the sage and galangal. It seems like there's a little bit of pepperiness to it, too.

 

It's not floral or resiny or woody; this is one of those ones that's hard to put into a category. To me, it kinda just smells like a generic perfume. It's not bad, just not a standout for me.

[angelicruin]

Frankincense and sage are strong while wet on my skin. I get that "grassy" scent as well as it begins to dry. The tobacco flower is a bit stronger once dry. Like it, but don't love it.

[ami226]

I can't remember what this one was like when I first purchased it... Anyways, I haven't tested it once since then.

 

On my skin this is a very smokey scent now. Very smokey with a bit of ginger? On me it isn't green at all.

 

After a bit, I can smell a bit of sweetness under the smoke.

 

Don't really like smokey scents, so this one is going off to the swaps.

[aquazoo]

Starts nasty, but luckily that fades fast. A little spicy, a little fruity. I can tell the ginger is there.

[theseagrows]

holy crap, this is beautiful. i LOVE olive blossom, and all the other notes, so i was 90% sure i would love this too. i only have one other BPAL with olive blossom but it's one of my favorites. this is light, springy and beautiful. at first it's a bit sweet from the flowers and maybe the fig, but that dies down and i am getting a beautiful olive blossom-tobacco scent with a bit of sage, herbs and flowers in the background. need.big.bottle.now.

 

[Shollin]

First sniff: Mossy green and gold. It’s a big scent, not loud but big, round and wet and enveloping.

 

Wearing: Fresher than in the bottle, very very green, with a sparkling hint of ginger around the edges.

[surf-tormented]

It smells clean and fresh in the bottle. On my skin, wet, it bears an initial similarity to Ghastly Garden, but not for long. Then some spicy goodness comes it and reminds me a lot of Hermia, one of my favorite BPAL blends. It smells like there is pink peppercorn in it, though it isn't listed in the notes. As it dries, it smells almost like a vanilla root beer, high on the anise or maybe that's angelica. Then fig and the frankincense come in, giving it a quick feel of a Valentine of Rome type blend. This it indeed a morpher with a good throw and it is long lasting. It it really nice and complex, being resiny, herbal, foody and fresh all at once.

 

It ages well too.

[voodoocatwoman]

Smells like wood.

[Teaotter]

In the bottle: olive blossom and beeswax.

 

Wet: Same as above. The beeswax smell is incredibly strong in the first rush, then backs off as the fig and the frankincense come out.

 

Dry: I love olive blossom, so it is one of the notes I'm glad sticks around for this. It gives a sharpness to the top that I adore. Underneath it is the swirly, creamy sweetness from the fig -- and probably the benzoin, though I don't pick that out specifically. There is a resinous layer under that which smells exactly like beeswax and frankincense.

 

This has moderate throw on me and lasts for about five hours. It's one of my favorites!

[imaginepageant]

In the Vial: Well this is interesting. It's light and herbal, but incensey, softly citrusy, and floral. What a mix of scents. I'm getting the bergamot, olive blossom, frankincense, fig, and a teensy hint of tobacco and ginger. If I had to pick a prominent note, I'd say bergamot, but really everything is quite soft and blended together well.

 

Wet: It's not changing much. Maybe it's getting a little sweeter. The olive blossom starts to come out... but then the bergamot takes center stage again. On the drydown, it gets a lot more herbal; the galangal is giving it a slightly minty pine smell.

 

Dry: Yep, minty pine. But the olive blossom is back, and there's still a hint of citrus. I can't really smell the benzoin, but I think that's what's keeping it from getting too sharp and green. I usually don't like pine, but this is kind of nice.

 

An Hour Later: The pine got a little sharper after about thirty minutes, but now the whole blend is really faint. I can barely pick up a bit of clean, fresh ozone, though I know it's probably just the galangal and olive blossom.

 

Overall: I quite liked it in the just-applied stage, but at the end of the day Tabella is just not for me - I'm not a fan of pine or ozone. I'm sad that I didn't get the creamy resin and beeswax that so many others did! I think I'll test this again in a few weeks, just in case today was an off day for my skin.

[porcelina]

tabella has aged nicely since 2008! i distinctly remember disliking it at first. the beeswax is lovely and golden, and the herbs tickle my nose. but something here smells soapy- other people might like this sweet, clean scent, but to me it's just a little too... i don't know, hand soap? i think the culprits may be the fig and olive blossom. it's a clean, golden/green herbal scent.

 

after a while the soapiness dies down and i'm left with a soft beeswax-and-herbs scent; very light and clean and close to the skin. it's quite nice.

Edited August 17, 2011 by porcelina

[JazzieCazzie]

Working my way through reviewing every scent in my collection, A-Z, so you can tell I'm getting close to the end here ... got a bottle of this via the Forum earlier this year and am testing from a decant from said bottle.

 

IN THE IMP: Light, woodsy and herbal, and ever-so-slightly creamily fruity.

 

Dabbed on one wrist and in the crook of my arm.

 

WET: Yes, very definitely a "creamy fruitiness" which is more creamy than fruity. I am guessing it's the olive blossom, which gives the herbal green woodsiness more of a roundness, for lack of a better word.

 

DRYDOWN: Sadly, I am not getting the fig which so many people have commented on ... I say sadly simply because j'adore fig. The scent overall is very complex and interesting and it really really really reminds me of another BPAL scent. Others have mentioned possibilities but what I keep thinking (and can't confirm because I don't have it) is Hanging Gardens ... anyone else smelled the two and can compare? The drydown is reasonably true to the wet smell, creamy and light and green and slightly fruity. I would add that the one note that rises on drydown and was not really noticeable to me when wet is the tobacco ... not pipe tobacco like, say, Tombstone but rather unsmoked cigarette tobacco. It reminds me vaguely of my dad who was a Camel Unfiltered man.

 

OVERALL: I like this, I like this a lot, but I don't LOVE it. There is some component in it that makes me ever so slightly queasy. As a result, I expect this will be going onto the swap list that will, hopefully by May 1, FINALLY be ready to roll out.

 

On a scale of 1-5, a strong 3.

Edited April 16, 2013 by JazzieCazzie